INSIDE
It’s National Noodle Month Sounding off on abortion Weekend basketball results
DOES DALLAS HAVE A NEW LANDMARK?
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MONDAY
MARCH 5, 2012
MONDAY High 75, Low 52 TUESDAY High 72, Low 61
VOLUME 96 ISSUE 68 FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
Campus
Dallas named in top best college towns CAROLINE MOREHEAD Contributing Writer cmorehead@smu.edu
HILLSMAN S JACKSON/SMU News
Architect Santiago Calatrava, Gail Thomas, president of the Trinity Trust, and Mark Roglan, director of Meadows Museum, in front of Calatrava’s sculpture “Wave.”
Bridge brings Calatrava to campus Meadows Museum honors Spanish architect for decade of work in Dallas PARMINDER DEO Staff Writer pdeo@smu.edu Continuing with the celebrations of the inaugural Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge over the Trinity River, SMU’s Meadows Museum welcomed Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava by hosting a special exhibition “Calatrava and SMU: A Decade in Motion.” Photographs, works on paper and a selection of preliminary sketches of the landmark sculpture “Wave” were on display. Museum goers also had a chance to see Calatrava student bridge models and personal inscriptions. “The exhibition tries to encapsulate the strong relationship and close relationship between Calatrava and the museum. It goes through time,” Mark Roglán, Meadows Museum director, said.
Meadows Museum opened its doors in 2001, highlighting Calatrava work in “Poetics of Movement.” The festival attendees included King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia of Spain. A vase, filled with water from Spain, was given as a gift until the unveiling of the kinetic water sculpture “Wave” at SMU in 2002. “It was poured into the reflecting pool beneath ‘Wave’ and was mixed with Texas water,” Meadows Curatorial Assistant Shelly DeMaria said. “It was meant to symbolize the aesthetic and cultural bond between the two countries. Dallas and Valencia have become sister cities. There is this whole connection that has been slowly developed through the decade.” In 2009, the Meadows Museum Plaza and Sculpture Garden were renovated creating a terrace and a fresh view of the
“Wave.” Saturday marked the first time Calatrava overlooked the 40-by-90 foot moving sculpture, which was the original intention of the piece. “The Wave has a repetition of art however, in a dynamic way. It is moving. The water below multiples and has a multiplying effect, creating more complex symmetry,” Calatrava said. An architect, artist and engineer from Valencia, Spain, Calatrava’s work is said to be both imaginative and poetic. Permanent pieces of Calatrava are housed at the Meadows Museum. Sculptures include “Palme” and “Il Dente” which will be incorporated into the new exhibit. SMU has presented Calatrava with the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts from the Meadows School of the Arts and an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree. For Calatrava, The Margaret
Hunt Hill Bridge is a functional piece and an interesting addition to Dallas itself. Moving just a little bit through the cables, of the bridge, the whole physiognomy changes. Despite claims of self-homage, a common artistic occurrence, Calatrava designed the bridge specifically for Dallas calling the city, “Nueva España del norte [new Spain of the north].” “The inspiration for the bridge came to me by watching the landscape,” Calatrava said. “There is a huge void between the two riversides. By seeing it in the night it is a very dark place. Friday night I saw the effect of putting these very plastic elements in the middle. All white, in the middle of the darkness. This is what I consider will be the center of Dallas for the 21st century.” The exhibition is free for SMU students and runs from March 4 through April 22.
FINANCE
Students need to develop a budget TASHIKA VARMA Assignments Desk Editor tvarma@smu.edu Let’s face it: college only lasts four to six years, depending on the person. Many seniors right now are facing the imminent “real world” that is right around the corner. Whether on the job hunt or deciding on a graduate school, students should start building their wealth now. The best way to do this is to develop a budget and live by it. A budget allows you to understand where money goes, ensures that a student doesn’t spend more than they make and finds ways to increase overall wealth. The first step is to make sure your net worth is a positive number. A net worth is your assets (what you own) minus your liabilities (what you owe). To develop a budget, calculate
Per onal Finan e your take-home from your job. Whatever starting salary offered is not in actuality what you take home at the end of the day. After taxes (federal, state, Social Security, etc.) and retirement and health insurance deductions, your pay can be 35 to 40 percent less than your starting salary. Don’t freak out, though. Despite these deductions, you can still have a positive net worth. One way to control your net worth is to track your daily expenses for a month.
This includes what you buy with cash, check and debit/credit card purchases. After the month is over, take a step back and see where your money goes and how to cut back, especially if you are in a deficit spending situation — when you’re spending more than you can make. Pay bills on time and in full. This is one of the best ways to ensure building wealth. When you forget about that credit card bill, your credit score goes down and this can affect
your future decisions such as renting an apartment, buying a house or purchasing a car. After you land your first job, you should immediately use automatic paycheck withdrawals. Automatic paycheck withdrawal helps reduce temptation to spend your entire paycheck. As soon as you enter the real world, you should start putting money in a savings account. It is best to save enough money to cover at least three to six months of necessary expenses, such as rent, food and bills. This safety cushion of saving will come in handy if you run into a bind like losing a job. This money will provide three to six months to focus on finding something new. Entering the “real world” can be nerve racking. But if you follow these few tips, your financial life will be under control, and you will start to build your wealth as soon as you graduate.
Home of the frozen margarita machine, five professional sports teams, 24 Fortune 500 companies, the largest urban arts district in the United States and an average minimum temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit, there is very little one cannot find in Dallas. This said, it is not surprising that SMU, located in the heart of Dallas, was named one of the 10 best college towns according to the Princeton Review List’s rankings reported in August 2011. Other universities who are housed in the top 10 college towns include Columbia University, Georgetown University, Tulane University and New York University. The Huffington Post college area ran these rankings on its site early this year on Jan. 13 in the Internet newspaper. The fourth largest metropolitan area and the ninth-largest city in the nation, Dallas is a centrally located city that attracts 55 percent of SMU’s student population from outside the state of Texas. Students flock from 50 states and approximately 90 foreign countries. While SMU’s students bring diverse ethnic, economic and religious backgrounds, these students are attracted to the variety of opportunities offered to them at SMU and the many advantages that come with being located in Dallas. “SMU making No. 8 spot on the ‘Great College Town’ ranking is not a reflection of the Princeton Review’s opinion of Dallas but of the high regard SMU students (who were surveyed by The Princeton Review for this project) have for Dallas,” Jeanne Krier, publicist for Princeton Review Books and Rankings, said. Krier said the survey simply asked, “What best describes the city or town where your school is located?” and the answer ranges on a five-point scale from “I can’t wait to leave” to “I could live here forever.” “You have to reach out and experience the culture of Dallas, because then you experience you,” Jacob Stewart a SMU theater major from St. Petersburg, Fla said. SMU brings the best of both worlds to its students who are offered a beautiful campus surrounded by a safe family friendly neighborhood just miles away from a metropolitan city with a sophisticated flare. “The friendly environment gives SMU an overall essential campus vibe that everyone looks for in a college,” Meghan Garlich, SMU senior from St. Louis, said. Not only is Dallas an upand-coming city, but it also is one of the wealthiest cities in America. With more places to eat per capita than New York City, Snider Plaza, Highland Park Village, Downtown, Uptown and Deep Ellum give students a different place to eat every night. Not to mention the substantial interest in fashion that stems from the many high profile shops and malls that can
be found throughout Dallas. To top it off, Dallas’s large corporations and businesses give SMU’s students an overwhelming amount of internship and job opportunities. Karen Drennan, director of marketing and communications for SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, said, “Working in Dallas has made my job a lot easier.” “Dallas is truly a city on the make, and it has so much going on with regard to innovative development and the investment and relocation of corporate headquarters, it creates the perfect storm,” Drennan said. Drennan described her purpose as a strategist for the school’s messaging, by finding the connection for what is happening externally with the school. She works with other schools at SMU including the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering and the Cox School of Business, because like many staff and faculty at SMU she believes the market is broad and students must be interdisciplinary rather than narrowly focused. “SMU is in a can-do city that has not seen a goal it cannot meet,” Drennan said. Moreover, it is the duality of the town that puts SMU in the top 10 according to Tommy Newton, director of undergraduate recruitment for Meadows School of the Arts. Newton does not sell SMU but rather he shares with prospective students as much as he can about the campus and the town so they can figure out if SMU is the right fit for them. While Newton said he does not put a lot of stock into rankings, he believe SMU has a town that should be ranked greater than the eighth best. “In the SMU bubble we have a secure area and within walking distance we are a college town where you can get a spray tan, the best cookies from JD’s, the best barbeque from Peggy Sue’s and get your laundry done by Mustang Laundry,” Newton said. If students stay in the bubble they choose to stay in the college town. However, the second part of the duality is the major metropolitan area that offers students no disadvantages. Students can chose to leave the bubble or stay in the bubble but either way the opportunities, variety and diversity are still there for students to pursue and take in. “Dallas is Dallas; it is not built around SMU. It is not a place specifically geared towards college students. It is a city where you have to communicate with the world,” Alyssa Hanedi, an SMU sophomore theater major from Kansas, said. Dallas is strong in an array of areas; however, it is not known too well for one specific area. It is the eclectic mix that offers SMU’s students an opportunity to ultimately find what they want to become through their experiences.